Yeah, I know, I go FIVE MONTHS without posting to the blog and the first thing I post is about Burger King.
As previously chatted about here, I've been observing the slow and painful demise of Burger King franchises all around the Midwest. Today, as a few of us went out to lunch in Wheaton I noticed that the BK, which oddly enough is RIGHT NEXT TO (even shares a parking lot with) McDonald's has closed.
So keep up the funny/weird/odd commercials guys, not sure if they're working or not. Clearly in the Western Suburbs of Chicago, it isn't as yet another one bites the dust.
16 April 2010
10 November 2009
Vending Maching Marketing in a Bad Economy
Had a very interesting experience yesterday and today.
Since we've moved into our new building at work (October 9th), I hadn't used the food vendo. It doesn't look as inviting as I think they thought it would and frankly, we had more stuff at the old building. But I needed something savory to fill the need and I chose a 50¢ bag of T.G.I.Friday's Potato Skins (crisps) - Cheddar and Bacon flavor.
Printed on the package was a teaser that said "Get 5 bucks off your next restaurant visit". I'm normally a skeptic to these tactics as you usually need to accumulate something like 200 bags worth to get that reward, but when I flipped over the bag, there was an actual coupon for $5 off next visit provided I spent $15. Good for dine-in only, not valid on alcoholic bevs.
Now, I haven't been to a T.G.I.Friday's in probably 5 years, but I'm sure that between two people, you can hit $15 without blinking an eye. To boot, the coupon is good for a YEAR (through October 31, 2010)
So that's quite a return on investment for a bag of chips. But the story doesn't end here.
Without really thinking about it, I passed by the vendo again this morning and just took out 50¢ more and bought another bag. Part of me quite liked them from yesterday and part of me wanted another $5 coupon to share with friends. But when the bag dropped and I pulled it out of the jaws of death machine, there was no coupon.
I stood bewildered wondering what the heck happened and felt a real sense of loss. I looked back into the machine and noticed that there was a bag with the teaser tag about three behind.
In the elevator back up to the sixth floor I started analyzing the whole scenario from a Market Researcher's point of view.
to clarify: It's not that I don't like them, in fact, I do but we don't eat much at these kinds of places lately, it's just not part of the decision process right now.
Since we've moved into our new building at work (October 9th), I hadn't used the food vendo. It doesn't look as inviting as I think they thought it would and frankly, we had more stuff at the old building. But I needed something savory to fill the need and I chose a 50¢ bag of T.G.I.Friday's Potato Skins (crisps) - Cheddar and Bacon flavor.
Printed on the package was a teaser that said "Get 5 bucks off your next restaurant visit". I'm normally a skeptic to these tactics as you usually need to accumulate something like 200 bags worth to get that reward, but when I flipped over the bag, there was an actual coupon for $5 off next visit provided I spent $15. Good for dine-in only, not valid on alcoholic bevs.
Now, I haven't been to a T.G.I.Friday's in probably 5 years, but I'm sure that between two people, you can hit $15 without blinking an eye. To boot, the coupon is good for a YEAR (through October 31, 2010)
So that's quite a return on investment for a bag of chips. But the story doesn't end here.
Without really thinking about it, I passed by the vendo again this morning and just took out 50¢ more and bought another bag. Part of me quite liked them from yesterday and part of me wanted another $5 coupon to share with friends. But when the bag dropped and I pulled it out of the jaws of death machine, there was no coupon.
I stood bewildered wondering what the heck happened and felt a real sense of loss. I looked back into the machine and noticed that there was a bag with the teaser tag about three behind.
In the elevator back up to the sixth floor I started analyzing the whole scenario from a Market Researcher's point of view.
- Does the vending company purposely put those bags every nth bag in the machine to drive multiple purchase? (or do they even notice it since usually these are just guys slapping product into machines)
- Does T.G.I.Friday's distribution/logistics group only put x-number of bags in each carton that goes to vendo companies?
- It seems that this promo might actually just drive someone to buy more product versus driving someone to dine-in, thus driving bigger sales. IS TGIF okay with that or would they consider that a failure.
- Is the year expiration date just driven by the cycle of how long it takes the product to be consumed after production?
- Does TGIF realize that they do not serve this product specifically in their stores?
- Are they trying this strategy on their frozen products that you can buy and make at home or would the perceived value of $5 just be an off-set of the price paid for those products?
- Since there is a coupon code on there, I assume they are tracking redemption. So how is it going?
to clarify: It's not that I don't like them, in fact, I do but we don't eat much at these kinds of places lately, it's just not part of the decision process right now.
17 October 2009
Damn, Heroes Jumped the Shark
Well, they did lose me last season, but Heroes on NBC jumped the shark.
Claire (hero who can immediately heal herself) has violated her Dad's ("HRG", Horn-rimmed glasses) wishes and taken on a friend AND divulged her "secret power".
The friend is enamored with Claire and is starting to show up every place Claire goes and OF COURSE they just had to kiss.
So the character that every nerd/geek/ComicCon attendee lusts after but would never have a chance with in a million years, kissed another girl (but did she like it? ...katy perry)
Most jumping the shark moments come with the addition of a dorky new family member or a move of the entire cast to a new city. But with Heroes, well, they exist globally to begin with so they really only had a few options here and with ratings falling off miserably, they went with the girl-on-girl action to whip everyone's pocket protector into a frenzy.
And NBC knows this was hack because they've even posted THIS on their website which gives you EVERY camera angle of the kiss!! Seriously.
It's a shame really because it was a good show and now, well, they're reaching to try to stay relevant. **click** that was me punching new channel buttons on my remote.
Claire (hero who can immediately heal herself) has violated her Dad's ("HRG", Horn-rimmed glasses) wishes and taken on a friend AND divulged her "secret power".
The friend is enamored with Claire and is starting to show up every place Claire goes and OF COURSE they just had to kiss.
So the character that every nerd/geek/ComicCon attendee lusts after but would never have a chance with in a million years, kissed another girl (but did she like it? ...katy perry)
Most jumping the shark moments come with the addition of a dorky new family member or a move of the entire cast to a new city. But with Heroes, well, they exist globally to begin with so they really only had a few options here and with ratings falling off miserably, they went with the girl-on-girl action to whip everyone's pocket protector into a frenzy.
And NBC knows this was hack because they've even posted THIS on their website which gives you EVERY camera angle of the kiss!! Seriously.
It's a shame really because it was a good show and now, well, they're reaching to try to stay relevant. **click** that was me punching new channel buttons on my remote.
Germ-a-phobes
Easing into our new office building is almost like dating a new girl. Every day is a new adventure, there's plenty of nooks & crannies to investigate and some days you just get slapped in the face because of something you say.
As I was leaving on Tuesday, I got into the elevator that goes to the underground parking structure and hit P2 (bottom floor). As I did, a woman told me that I should have hit it with my pinky finger or with my jacket as "that whole thing is just full of people's germs".
In the 20 seconds our trip took she continued to school me on how we all need to do our share, blah blah blah...
Since we're still in the early stages of this new building "relationship" I bit my tongue and just nicely told her to have a good evening, but what I really wanted to respond with (and I DID..in my head) would have gone something like this...
"Lady, I've touched a butt-load of elevator buttons in my 43 years on this Earth and I'm still standing here next to you. The days of the bubonic plague are over, there's this stuff called medicine that really does an amazing job of curing what ails you. If you want to go around living your life in fear, feel free, but don't bother trying to 'save' me, I'm doing pretty well."
Look, I totally understand that the H1N1 is out there and that this stuff is serious, but I think the entertainews that we are all fed on a daily basis really has been blowing this stuff up into a plague that is never going to come.
The rules for germs haven't changed in hundreds of years and we've gotten much smarter about them. Wash your hands WELL, take precautions around others who are sick, eat well, and if you're feeling horrible, call your doctor or seek other medical attention.
Phew, got that off my chest. Hey, what's that rash next to my belly button?
As I was leaving on Tuesday, I got into the elevator that goes to the underground parking structure and hit P2 (bottom floor). As I did, a woman told me that I should have hit it with my pinky finger or with my jacket as "that whole thing is just full of people's germs".
In the 20 seconds our trip took she continued to school me on how we all need to do our share, blah blah blah...
Since we're still in the early stages of this new building "relationship" I bit my tongue and just nicely told her to have a good evening, but what I really wanted to respond with (and I DID..in my head) would have gone something like this...
"Lady, I've touched a butt-load of elevator buttons in my 43 years on this Earth and I'm still standing here next to you. The days of the bubonic plague are over, there's this stuff called medicine that really does an amazing job of curing what ails you. If you want to go around living your life in fear, feel free, but don't bother trying to 'save' me, I'm doing pretty well."
Look, I totally understand that the H1N1 is out there and that this stuff is serious, but I think the entertainews that we are all fed on a daily basis really has been blowing this stuff up into a plague that is never going to come.
The rules for germs haven't changed in hundreds of years and we've gotten much smarter about them. Wash your hands WELL, take precautions around others who are sick, eat well, and if you're feeling horrible, call your doctor or seek other medical attention.
Phew, got that off my chest. Hey, what's that rash next to my belly button?
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